Strategies of Argument

This volume features fifteen new papers by an international group of scholars in ancient philosophy, with a particular focus on new work in ancient Greek and Roman ethics, epistemology, logic, and science. The papers are organized around five broad topics: Plato, Aristotle's ethics and practical reasoning, Aristotelian logic, Hellenistic ethics, and Hellenistic epistemology. Specific topics covered include the refutation of the hedonist in Plato's Philebus, the question of whether modern interpreters are right to read Plato's Timaeus as "proto-historical," Aristotle's argument concerning virtue, Aristotle's discussion of practical reasoning in the realm of ethics, Aristotle's logical theory, classification and division of goods in ancient ethical theories, and belief, appearances, and assent in Hellenistic epistemology.

Mi-Kyoung (Mitzi) Lee received her PhD from Harvard in 1996. She taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago from 1996 until 2005, when she took up her current position at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She has held visiting positions at the University of Chicago and Harvard University. Professor Lee works in the area of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. She is the author of Epistemology after Protagoras: Responses to Relativism in Plato, Aristotle, and Democritus (OUP, 2005), as well as numerous articles in ancient philosophy.

Preface Notes on Contributors Plato 1. The life of Protarchus' choosing: Plato Philebus 20b-22c Verity Harte 2. Fools' pleasures in Plato's Philebus Jennifer Whiting 3. Did Plato's cosmos literally begin? Sarah Broadie Aristotle's ethics and practical reasoning 4. A swarm of virtues: on the unity and completeness of Aristotle's scheme of character-virtues Dorothea Frede 5. Justice and the laws in Aristotle's ethics Mi-Kyoung Lee 6. Aristotle on how to fell a tree and other matters involving experience Dana Miller Aristotelian logic 7. Deduction in Sophistici Elenchi 6 Marko Malink 8. Boethus and finished syllogisms Jonathan Barnes 9. Alexander of Aphrodisias on Aristotle's theory of the Stoic indemonstrables Susanne Bobzien Hellenistic ethics 10. Why there are ends of both goods and evils in ancient ethical theory James Allen 11. Ancient goods: the tria genera bonorum in ethical theory Brad Inwood 12. The Philosophical Ambitions of Seneca's Letters John Schafer Hellenistic epistemology 13. The epistemology of Ptolemy's On the criterion Mark Schiefsky 14. Compulsions of Stoic assent Charles Brittain 15. Sextus Empiricus on Persuasiveness and Equipollence Svavar Hrafn Svavarsson Bibliography for Gisela Striker Subject Index Index of Names Index Locorum